umination, is a voluntary eructation.

"The pointed knots, like little papillae, in the stomachs of ruminating
beasts, are also of great use, namely, for the tasting of the meat. The
inner membrane of the first three venters is fibrous (like the gustatory
papillae of the tongue) and not glandulous; the fourth only being
glandulous, as in a man. Of the fibres of this membrane, and the
nervous, are composed those pointed knots, which are, both in substance
and shape, altogether like to those upon the tongue. Whence I doubt not,
but that the said three ventricles, as they have a power of voluntary
motion, so, likewise, that they are the seat of taste, and as truly the
organs of that sense, as is the tongue itself."

[Illustration: Skull of Domestic Ox, from a specimen in the Royal
College of Surgeons.]

The mouth of animals of the Ox Tribe contains, when full, thirty-two
teeth. Six molars in each jaw, above, below, and on either side; and
eight incisors in the lower jaw. In the upper jaw there are no
incisors; but instead thereof a fibrous and elastic pad, or cushion,
which covers the convex extremity of the anterior maxillary bone, and
which is well worthy of observation.

The final cause of this pad (which stands in the place of upper incisor
teeth) and the part it plays in the procuring of food, is thus described
by Youatt. "The grass is collected and rolled together by means of the
long and moveable tongue; it is firmly held between the lower cutting
teeth and the pad, the cartilaginous upper lip assisting in this; and
then by a sudden nodding motion of the head, the little roll of herbage
is either torn or cut off, or partly both torn and cut.

"The intention of this singular method of gathering the food, it is
somewhat difficult satisfactorily to explain. It is peculiar to
ruminants, who have one large stomach, in which the food is kept as a
kind of reservoir until it is ready for the action of the other
stomachs. While it is kept there it is in a state of maceration; it is
exposed to the united influence of moisture and warmth, and the
consequence of this is, that a species of decomposition sometimes
commences, and a vast deal of gas is extricated.

"That this should not take place in the natural process of retention and
maceration, nature possibly established this mechanism for the first
gathering of the food. It is impossible that half of that which is thus
procured can be fairly cut through; part will be to